How the Mighty

Made this as a weeknight dinner last week, two nights in a row. Polenta and corn. Onions and mushroom. And maple glazed apples and pork chop with candied pecans. All from scratch.

This week? I made comically hideous yet relatively tasty cupcakes. From a box. Though the ganache was homemade. These were my "Collapsible Steering Column Cakes" for Prof Papa's class. But the pastry tips were harder to use than I imagined so they turned out like Hostess squigglies. As I was distributing them in class, Prof Papa walked toward me. I asked him if he wanted one and without a smile, he nodded, took one, and just asked me for a napkin. As if it was the most natural thing to him that someone would make injury prevention cupcakes for his class and offer it to him so that he didn't need to consider or acknowledge any of this.

For dinner this week, I had take out leftovers 3 nights in a row. Finally cooked a tiny bit tonight but nothing like last week. I ate well last week. Whipped up a shrimp/chorizo/arugula sandwich tonight. I bought white sliced bread for the first time in years after I went grocery shopping rather than go to CVS like my to-do list said to-do. This also means that I haven't had loratadine in days. My skin really needs loratadine. But I really love white bread. It's soft and reminds me of Taiwan. I know it has no nutritional value. So I normally get guilted into buying either more expensive fancy bread or wheat toast. But not today. I'm going to enjoy my sandwiches for the next week.

The More Things Change

Yesterday, Louise and I had a spat about whose face smelled more like fruit or something along those lines. There was a lot of "you smell," "no, your face does," and other well articulated arguments. But it made Cashier Dorothy smile, which is OK by me. Following our public display of eloquence and intellect, we joined a greater discussion amongst our work group regarding whether people around us are getting dumber (our hypothesis) or if we are just getting smarter (unlikely). The debate reached a climax when I shouted "I think my shirt is on backwards" and ran into the rest rom to turn it around. Some days, it feels like I'm only seconds away from getting my BA revoked.

Papa Don't

Sometimes, I forget that not everyone in the world needs to constantly best the people around them. That is, sometimes I forget that not everyone is Doc Whitecastle.

Moi: I forgot to ask you a question.

Prof Papa: Oh look, my schedule is all booked. I can't do the video anymore.

Moi: You wouldn't want Howard to show you up.

Prof Papa: Howard is a better man than I am. He should have the glory.

If only that sounded more convincing, my faith in academics would be restored.

A Nerd in Three Acts

In high school, I remember vehemently making the distinction between geeks and nerds. For reasons I cannot now recall, I was confident that I was the former and not the latter. At this point in my life, I'm pretty comfortable with both. Though I still insist that labels aside, I am the coolest person ever.

Today, I spent four hours making a table for our informal lit review project for Prof Papa's class. Yes, the course where most people get A's. Because it was more fun to read the literature on the risk of injuries among lefties than work on my Health IT midterm. So I read through a dozen papers, abstracted the necessary info, and made a really pretty table. Just because.

Today, I sent Prof FAO my apologies for forgetting to send the grade distribution for her class (in another pretty Excel table) earlier. This was her reply: "I wasn't worried. I know you both are as compulsive as I am."

Today, per usual, I doodled all over my notebook during lecture. Feeling uninspired, I mostly stuck with squares and rectangles. One of these doodles happened to be 4 rectangular boxes lined up in increasing length.

Maxwell*: Did you just draw a graph in your notes? What a nerd. (this from a man about to publish a paper on baseball statistics)

Moi: No, I was just doodling. These are just rectangles.

Maxwell: Doodle graphs? That's even nerdier.


*Maxwell also picked on Sophie for getting a "very good" rather than "excellent" on our papers today, despite printing her graph with color, so he was on a bullying roll.

Fan the Flame

I can't stop thinking about my lunch/dinner/lunch-again-tomorrow-if-I-can-resist-eating-it-for-breakfast. I am very seriously contemplating going back again tomorrow. I know exactly what I'll order:

Medium curried goat with rice and beans. And a side of jerk wings. As someone who once loved lamb but now eats it cautiously thanks to 30 straight days of lamb in Chinar (maybe not every day, but at least 3 times a week), it's got to be a fine dish to warrant a 48-hour craving from me.

I'd gone to Flames II a few times before, but was usually too busy shoving a patty with cocoa bread in my mouth to consider much else. Something clicked today. Maybe it was the hunger. Maybe it was the company. Maybe I was finally smart enough to show up at lunch and not dinner (pretty sure lunch and dinner are cooked at the same time). But my goat was melty and rich, the rice and beans redolent with coconut milk, and the jerk wings both tender and just too-spicy enough to hook you in, numb your mouth, and make you go back to the rice and goat until the process repeats again. Jo, Faith, and I could not stop talking about our lunch. Then Jesse heard that we'd went there and we talked about the goat again for ten minutes. Then I went home and ate it again.

Ballers Pt. 2

All fancied up at the Ball.

Some of us are fancier than others. Then again, some of us are better at biostat than others. This is my policy-biostat support group:

I know. We'd gone through so long without a toilet picture. Just when you thought I was going proper on you, I throw one in here.

My point is that this toilet is completely plain. The Harvard Club on Comm Ave: All fancy and exclusive on the outside, completely ordinary on the inside. Much like the school itself*.

*I kid, I kid, School. You are worthy of the world's adulation.

Ballers Pt. 1

It was our grad school prom ("Winter Ball") this weekend. Whoever came up with the concept of Winter Ball has obviously never walked through the Boston snow banks with bare legs in open toed (but pretty) shoes. Before the festivities began, we gathered at Laura's for dinner.

I love pictures of people just hanging out, enjoying themselves without noticing the camera.

But this completely posed one makes me smile three ways:

Consumed

The South End is full of great restaurants and a few cool bars. In short, an independent eater's paradise (if paradise required a lot of money and self-congratulatory elitism). There are row after row of eateries serving Thai, Indian, Ethiopian, French, American, Italian, Spanish, Peruvian, Venezuelan food (unfortunately, no Chinese, but Chinatown is next door). So naturally, D-Bomb and I hung out at the local Starbucks on Friday night.

We did try. We tried very hard. We supported local business with dinner at Don Ricardo, where service was lovely and attentive until we tried to get the check. After dinner, we naively tried to go to Picco's for ice cream and beer. Like it was possible on a Friday night. It was packed. Along with every other restaurant on the stretch. And bar. (Well, Don's wasn't. But we weren't going to stoop that low. Though I'd really like to try his flan. Right now.) And everyone everywhere looked chic and impressive and in love. Except for us. Hence the near empty Starbucks.

Instead, we sipped sugary caffeine and talked about middle school and what Starbucks meant to us then. At a South End coffee shop on a Friday night, we were living what our high school selves aspired to (discussing books amidst brownstones- if only 16 year old me could see it now!), yet still feeling like we were on the outside, looking in.

Little White Lies

The board is back. People who know me know that the little white board at work is my prized possession. It's a little place on which I get to be goofy and rally the office together. It was how I got to know Doc Firewall and I miss him. The board had been on hiatus since the end of the summer. Too many things got in the way and in the meantime, seven babies have been born in the office. I had three myself. But Jen inspired me this week and I brought it all back with an entry on pronouncing Doc Winner's name (Winner? Whiner? Winnay?)

Per usual, it garnered the type of banter and distraction that make me love my white board creations. And as per usual, this gladness was followed by immense pressure and anxiety about living up to the entry again next week. Since I was also in the midst of trying to wrap up a paper for Doc Whitecastle, I tagged on a note for him not to yell at me, because colorful board aside, I really am working hard. Not that he appreciated it.

(on my way out of the office for the weekend)

Moi: In case you missed it, there's a note for you on the white board..

Whitecastle: Which board?

Moi: The little one that has just been resurrected. Have a nice weekend. (start heading home)

Whitecastle (shouting behind me): Are you running away before I get a chance to read it? That's cowardly!

Moi: I can't hear you.

The Streak Ends Now

I felt very much like a graduate student today. Days like today make me think that I can do this whole doctoral thing. Though I know that days like today are absolute flukes. But I had all the buzz words. Morning check in with adviser. Work on manuscript. Meeting with Whitecastle. Networked with a Hopkins alum (or a "call with Hopkins"). Did some more work. Went to class. Dinner reunion with econ TAs. Came home. Graded papers. Very uncharacteristically productive. Now if I can only resist the urge to slack off or watch TV for five more years...

(updating Prof Papa on my school admittance status)

Moi: ... I got into two so far, rejected from Harvard, still waiting on a couple... so you must have said something right in your letter. Thanks.

Prof Papa: That's exactly what I told them- please admit her, except for Harvard.

Poppy Daycare

Doc Poppy's 9-month old is in daycare. Doc Poppy gets weekly progress reports on her daughter's progress, including reports of some early bullying tendencies. The progress reports tell of the wonderful crafts she's done all week, the songs she sang, the projects she's completed. Oddly enough, Baby Poppy never does any of these activities at home. Either because she regresses whenever she's home. She's shy and hiding her true talents. She's leading a baby spy double life. Or because she's only 9 months old and these are heavily embellished reports. If only we could figure out which reason it is...

An Accountant and Pirate Walk into a Bar

I'm chatting with Jen in the lab when Laura walks by...

Laura: Howard is in.  And he has a pirate eye patch we can use.

Moi: (turn to Jen, start to explain)

Laura: It's OK.  I'm not going to ask. 

Supersize This

After a few days of celebrating my heritage and eating all the right lunar new year foodstuffs, got a sudden hankering for a burger last night. Sausage + pork patty (homemade, natch), barbeque mushrooms and onions, fried egg, bacon, arugula, cheddar + gouda.

I found out this week that I won't be staying in Boston next year (sorry, Sister Claire- and no, I can't wait for the fun awkwardness that'll hang around whenever I head over DPM now). Not sure where I'll be yet, but Baltimore, Seattle, and Providence are the main contenders. I'll be relieved when all the decisions have been made and the elbow patch cardigans purchased. And of course, tell you all about it. In the meantime, there are burgers to be enjoyed.

Sons of Menarche

Today in my biostat course, Prof/Doc Bob* (it's always weird when worlds converge and a Doc becomes a Prof- thank God that Whitecastle is not public health faculty) said 'menarche' at least 13 times.

Moi: I like that [boy] scientists came up with a word so they can avoid saying period or menstruation.

Laura: It even rhymes with patriarchy.


*I know, he needs a better name.  It's harder than it looks, OK?

My Favorite Things (February 2011 Edition)

We are long overdue for a three'fer list:

1. PubGet. I know I'm late to the party (it's always humbling when
Whitecastle is ahead of me in trends) but this service is amazing for
anyone whose job is nerdy enough (lucky enough?) to heavily rely on
PubMed. Can't rave about it enough because it saves me 1-2 steps when I find PDFs.

2. Since I'm just shamelessly shilling services now, how about the
"Caramel Delight" Light & Fit yogurt I had for breakfast? I love fake
healthy yogurts that are really desserts in disguise. I know it's
unnatural and too sweet, but if something is marked as Light & Fit, it
must be good for me, no?

3. Good news from schools. Wish I had more of them, but have 2 good choices so far, and there may be another 1 or 2 on the way. Actually, this is tied with new year dumpling making with friends. That hasn't even happened yet, but the anticipation alone is making me tingly.